Some of Nicephorous's assumptions are correct. There are not many choices of backgrounds — the idea is to offer a limited selection from broad archetypes, and allowing you to act as you wish within the boundaries of that background for the beginning of the game (which is background-specific — a unique beginning chapter of the game for each background and thus not an insignificant undertaking).

Alternatively, we could have offered a plethora of choices, but in doing so would have necessarily had to make each choice far less significant then we have been able to— without needing to go all the way to the extreme of having a single set background to play off of, which is the route many RPG's would take that don't cast you as the rootless outsider to make their lives easier. Having more choices is not always an improvement.

Interesting read, as always. Sounds like they're sacrificing quantity for quality re: choices. I like it when games do that - conceede at the outset that it's impossible to give the player total freedom, and so give them a limited (and well defined freedom, ie you get to choose X but not Y) freedom, but make that limited freedom really mean something. It is true that you generally have to make a choice between a really strong predefined story and giving the player a ton of freedom. Sacrificing the freedom is often worth it. I really enjoyed PS:T, and also the KOTORs and Jade Empire. NWN2 messed up on this account- in trying to give oyu that total freedom to determine who your character is (at the outset, at least) they made the choice totally meaningless. You end up under Nasher's bootheel anyway. The story is the same every time anyway, and because the PC is mostly irrelevent to it, it's not a great story for the most part. For the whole game you're just doing what other people tell you to do.

The compromise that they're going for in DA sounds like it could really be a winner. If they combine it with the story-structure of BG2, it could be a great game. They've said they're including a section that is similar to chapter 2/3 of SoA, I hope it works.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
No publisher = no date. Patrick Weekes made it clear that DA publicity would take a back seat until Mass Effect is out the door.

Right. Since M.E. is out November 20th, I wouldn't expect any news on Dragon Age until the new year (the time between late November and Christmas will likely be spent pushing M.E. some more, since you don't start a major marketing push right before Christmas).

The one thing you can always say about Bioware is that they take their RPG's seriously. I think all of Gaider's points about distinctive characters fostering the most story were as usual perceptive and on the mark.
I can't believe people are calling the Witcher sexist because Geralt isn't capable of being gender changed though…sometimes the internet is really a silly place.

I find Gaider insightful, while ranging from lightly acerbic to outright hostile in tone, which is good for some amusement. That said, I regularly disagree with his (meaning BioWare's) priorities but at least it is clear where he is coming from.